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About the book:

About the Study Guide:

Our Thoughts:

For More Information:

For more information, please visit the Progeny Press website. You can also find out more on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.  The Homeschool Review Crew also reviewed these other literature guides from Progeny Press:

• The Long Way to a New Land Study Guide Grades K-3
• Little House on the Prairie Study Guide Grades 4-6
• Shadow Spinner Study Guide Grades 5-8
• Hound of the Baskervilles Study Guide  Grades 9-12

You can read those reviews and others by clicking the banner below.

About the Program:

Online Times Alive teaches multiplication facts through songs, stories, and games. Throughout the program, there are quizzes, coloring pages, matching, and more.  Online Times Alive is available for $9.95 per month with a $6.95 sign-up fee.  This price allows an unlimited number of students on one computer.

There is also an Online Times Alive app designed for iOS 9 and above if you prefer for your children to learn that way.  We were given access to the app as well, so I put that on the children’s iPad.  We found that it was a lot easier to work on Online Times Alive through the app instead of on a computer.

After listening to the story or song, there is a section where they immediately put into practice the math fact that was taught. For example for 8×4=32, the story is about pigs that get muddy.  It’s easy and fun to remember this fact that way.

Next, there will be a set of problems that have been taught already for review.  It will check the problems for your student and let them know how they did.  If they forget some, they can manually go back in the program and review the facts that are causing the struggle.

The Lesson List shows what has been completed so far in the program.  The number 4 with a circle is supposed to indicate that the student has completed that area, but we found that often my daughters had completed something but it was just marked as viewed.  Not quite sure what we were doing wrong that it didn’t show complete on many things.

Our Thoughts:

We’ve been checking out Online Times Alive over the past few weeks and my 4th grade daughter has completed the program.  My 3rd grader still has a little bit left.  The program doesn’t have an automatic stopping point, so my older daughter had gone quite far in the program during one sitting before I remember she was still working on it.  She didn’t seem to mind, though, and enjoyed listening and working on the program.

Although it’s not their favorite math program, I have noticed that my girls are remembering their multiplication facts a little quicker now.  I bet it’s because they have all these nifty songs and stories in their heads helping them remember.

One thing that is important to note about Online Times Alive is that it keeps track of your children’s place on one computer or device, only, so be sure when you create an account that you are using the device that you want your child to use each time.  For us, we chose the school room computer.  I would definitely prefer a program that we can log onto any computer and be able to work at the same place where we left off.

For More Information:

For more information, please visit Online Times Alive .  You can also find out more on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.  You can also click the banner below to read more reviews on this product from other homeschooling families.

This weekend was nice but busy.  The kids are getting busier with their friends and babysitting, petsitting, and other activities.  I’m so thankful they have sweet friends.  I also took our 2 boys to Monster Jam while it was at the Infinite Energy Arena.  That was a lot of fun!  They got to meet one of the drivers!

The week ahead brings one of our favorite little friend’s birthdays and more homeschool. We’ve been passing around a cold and I hope this week also brings healing for our family.  Here’s what we are making this week:

Monday: Pork Chops, veggies

Tuesday: Chicken Fried Cauliflower Rice

Wednesday: Bean Burritos

Thursday: Secret Ingredient Buffalo Chicken Casserole 

Friday: Dinner with friends

Saturday: Chicken Casserole

Sunday: Dinner with friends

My boys learning to lasso this past weekend.

It’s Monday again.  I had trouble sleeping last night so I’ve been up for a while and making Dark Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins for the crew.  The week ahead brings another homeschool week, a field trip to a local historic site, and culminating in Monster Jam.  I’m hoping to find some time to get some fall cleaning done this week.  It’s hard to think fall when it’s supposed to be 98 degrees here today!!!

Here’s what is on the menu for this week:

Monday: Egg Casserole

Tuesday: Teriyaki Chicken and Brown Rice

Wednesday: Spaghetti

Thursday: Rotisserie Chicken (Did you know Fresh Market has $5 Rotisserie Chickens on Thursday this month!!?), veggies

Friday: Dinner Out

Saturday: Smoked Boston butt, veggies

Sunday: Low Carb Chicken Chimichangas 

Have you tried a new recipe lately?  Leave a comment and tell me about your favorites.

For reviewing purposes, even though we now have Fourth Grade and Third Grade, I’m just focusing on the Fourth Grade book. 200 Essential Reading Skills for Fourth Grade has 200 pages of comprehension, grammar, spelling, and review and is based on the multi-award winning #1 reading program.  It is proven to increase reading levels in just 15 minutes a day.  Inside the book, there are 5 days of work for 36 weeks.  In the midst are four different review checkpoints.  Typically Days 1 and 2 of each week is spent working on comprehension.  Days 3 and 4 are spent working on spelling, and Day 5 is grammar.

The Comprehension pages are probably my favorite part of the workbook.  On these pages, the student needs to read a passage and then highlight/circle/underline/color certain parts of the passage to help them answer the comprehension questions.  This is definitely something that my girls needed to work on.  It is approached with such simplicity that my daughter hasn’t struggled at all to find the answers.

The spelling sections were a little frustrating for my daughter.  It’s hard to only work on spelling words for 1-2 days.  Some of the words they expected the kids to know the definitions of were challenging, such as sluice, retinue, and sinew.  This did cause us to bring out the dictionary and look up words, but I feel like they could have used more common words since they are only used during a short time.

One thing that was a little frustrating for me as the parent/teacher, is that the answers are in the back of the book.  While I appreciate this for quick checking, the first page of the answers are printed on the back of the last page of work in the book.  I can tear out most of the answer pages and keep them at my desk, but I wish they had left a blank page first so that it wouldn’t be on the back side of the last lesson.

Another thing to point out is the book has a plastic film over the cover for protection.  We’ve been using it normally for several weeks and it’s already starting to peel.  This isn’t a dealbreaker, but worth noting.

Overall, I’m thankful we had a chance to put our hands on 200 Essential Reading Skills for Fourth Grade for this review.  I have no regrets in grabbing the Third Grade edition and we plan to continue it throughout this school year.

Reading Eggs is generously offering 4 weeks of their online program for FREE to my readers.  Sign up today and watch your child become a stronger reader this Back-to-School season!  A multi-award winning online learning program for children ages 2–13, Reading Eggs supports the essential foundations of reading with its highly engaging lessons, games, and e-books!

For More Information:

For more information, you can visit the Reading Eggs website.  You can also find out more on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram. You can also click the banner below to read more reviews from other homeschooling families on this product and others from Reading Eggs.

Happy Monday everyone!  We had a nice weekend with some friends up in the mountains.  The mountains are truly our happy place and we go as often as possible.  We had a good first week of homeschool and are starting to settle into a routine.  This week ahead brings more school and adventures!

Here is what we are making this week!

Monday: Black Bean Burritos

Tuesday: Dinner with friends

Wednesday: Pork loin

Thursday: Trim Mac Salad

Friday: Dinner out

Saturday: Eggs, sausage, biscuits

Sunday: Grilled chicken salad

Whats on your menu?

Memoria Press has such quality homeschool materials, so I was thrilled for the chance to review the Seventh Grade Literature Guide Set which included The Hobbit Literature Guide Set.

With this set we received the following:

• The Hobbit Student Study Guide
• The Hobbit Teacher Guide
• The Trojan War Student Study Guide
• The Trojan War Teacher Guide
• The Bronze Bow Student Study Guide
• The Bronze Bow Teacher Guide
• Anne of Green Gables Student Study Guide
• Anne of Green Gables Teacher Guide

My 7th grade son loves to read, so I let him go ahead and get a jump start on his fall studies.  I showed him the selection and he decided to start to work on The Hobbit Literature Guide Set.  We loaded The Hobbit to his Fire Tablet and he got to work.

The only problem we have had is that my son likes to keep reading, but doesn’t necessarily wish to stop and do the study guide.  I have to often remind him to slow down and answer the study guide questions first.  I do allow him to work at his own pace as long as he’s trying to keep up with the study guide while he’s reading.  He’s getting a lot accomplished!

The Hobbit Literature Guide is pretty self explanatory and doesn’t need a lot of teacher direction.  A student is able to read a chapter in their assigned book and then work through the pages in the guide that coordinate.  The guide has “Reading Notes”, which are actually quite helpful in explaining what some of the words and characters in the book meant.  For example, in The Hobbit, some of the “Reading Notes” include defining the characters of Bilbo Baggins, The Books, Gandalf, Thorin, and Smaug.  There are also vocabulary works that the student has to define.  Comprehension questions, quotations, and discussion questions are also included.  These help make the student return to the book and think more about what they are reading.

My son wasn’t a huge fan of the poetry weeks that are in the study guide and having to figure out what The Dwarves’ Song meant, however we haven’t worked on poetry much before.  I appreciate that this guide helped us through taking apart and understanding poetry.

In the back, there are worksheets for creating notes about the characters in the book.  There is a sheet to create notes on creatures and describe places, adventures, and more.

The Teacher Guide includes answers to the workbook along with quizzes and exam questions.

Next up, I think my son plans to read Anne of Green Gables and then we will probably go with The Trojan War and then The Bronze Bow.  I’m happy to see him working through these classics and using the study guides to learn.

Overall, we really like this program and I’ll be considering it for my other children.  We have been very pleased with how deep some of the questions go in order to make the students think.

For More Information:

For more information, please visit the Memoria Press website. You can find this complete set plus the novels for only $129.00.  If you are interested in other grades, they offer sets from first through tenth grade.

You can also find out more on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, or Instagram.  Also be sure to click the banner below to read Crew reviews on this product and others from Memory Press.